Erasmus+ Youth “Unity is Strength”

Partners: Moldova, Turkey, Lithuania and Ukraine

Number of participants: 28

Dates: February 21-26, 2020.

The goal of the project is to minimize inequality in society and create a friendly atmosphere. Expected results and impact of our project:

• Show that social cohesion has a national identity
• Show the influence of peer group on participation in public life
• To examine group dynamics through emotional awareness
• To prove that it is possible to live together
• To take steps towards collective peace and promote awareness
• Show that multiculturalism is beneficial
• Show social cohesion without borders

ERASMUS+ is a European Union program that supports international cooperation projects, partnerships, events and mobility in the fields of education, training, youth and sport from 2014 to 2020. The exchange of students and their acquisition of new experience ensures the development of moral values, close cooperation between countries, and cross-cultural communication.

The cooperation between our university and Turkey, which has been established for several years, has a significant impact on the motivation of students to study and improve their English language skills. During the week (February 20-27, 2020), six students under the guidance of Vitalii Kotsur, PhD in Political Science, Associate Professor of the Department of Political Science, visited the city of Shanliurfa in Turkey as part of the Unity is Strength project, which aimed to improve social cohesion among different social groups of participants, interpersonal cultural interaction, and foster respect for national differences.

It was also noted that social cohesion is the ability to live together without regard to religious, linguistic, racial, and gender differences. In this context, the trainings covered aspects of social cohesion, unity, social entrepreneurship, intercultural communication, and inequality of opportunity.

A total of 28 participants from the following 4 countries took part in the project: Moldova, Germany, Turkey, and Ukraine.

The first day was marked by the arrival of all participants at the airport and their escort by the coordinating representatives to the hotel. The work began with interesting games to get to know each other better and interact to create close friendships between the participants. In order to prevent misunderstandings and help each other, each participant described their own fears, experiences and suggestions for further work.

Each day was interesting and informative: informal learning methods realized in warm-up games from each country at the beginning of the day set a good pace of work. As we talked, the relationships became stronger, and we could feel the interethnic and national unity. The program activities also included visits to an orphanage and refugee families. Communication between people of different social groups and nationalities proved that we can get along despite national differences; that the language barrier can be overcome under any circumstances; that awareness of the culture and basic traditions of other countries is extremely important.

The “cultural festival” at the end of the second day was fun and interesting! Spicy meat dishes, baklava, rahat lukum, chocolate, sweets, fruits and many more interesting facts about the traditions of the participating countries encouraged communication and tasting of national dishes. The holiday ended with inflammatory dances, traditional for Turkey.

Thanks to the project organizers, the international team had the opportunity to visit the majestic city of Shanliurfa, founded 2000 BC, and saw the Prophet Abraham, ancient Harran, the gigantic (compared to ours) Harran University, and many more historical and cultural monuments.

The experience of participating in this project allows us to see future opportunities.

As a result of the meeting, the participants were able to

• to find out that social cohesion has a national identity;
• to consider group dynamics through emotional awareness;
• to prove that it is possible to live together by taking steps towards collective peace and promoting the exchange of experience;
• to show social cohesion without boundaries, the benefits of multiculturalism, and the influence of peer group on participation in public life.